# United States Representative, District 50 Compare records and positions simply between Steve Cohen or Scott Peters for United States Representative, District 50 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person holds your district's seat in the U.S. House of Representatives (2-year term). - Jurisdiction: Federal - Election: November 3, 2026 California general election - Publisher: Vote or Else (https://voteorelse.com) — a free, nonpartisan ballot guide for California voters. No endorsements. - Canonical page: https://voteorelse.com/2026/us-rep-50 - Full ballot: this page covers one race. Every contest on a voter's own ballot, by address, with the same breakdown for each: https://voteorelse.com/ - Sources last retrieved: September 24, 2026 - Source-objectivity score: 92 out of 100 (Very strong), across 9 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Steve Cohen** — Television News Consultant · Republican - **Scott Peters** — Member of Congress · Democratic Representative Scott Peters took 48.1% of the June 2 vote — short of a majority — and Republican Steve Cohen took 39.8%, an 8.3-point gap. Cohen has reported no campaign funding at all. The district covers central and coastal San Diego. The winner holds one of 435 seats in the U.S. House for a two-year term. A member introduces bills, sits on committees that shape federal legislation, votes on the federal budget and on war powers, and handles casework between constituents and federal agencies. Seniority governs committee standing, so a longer-serving member carries influence a newcomer cannot. Two facts sit oddly together here. The incumbent has thirteen years of seniority and $1.81 million behind him, yet took under half the vote against an opponent who reported nothing. And his funding is the most committee-dependent of any member in this part of the ballot — $1,066,750 of $1.81 million. Weigh the record against both. ## Scott Peters Scott Peters has represented California's 50th District, covering central and coastal San Diego, since 2013. He spent 15 years as an environmental lawyer and worked as an economist for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency before attending law school at NYU (his House website). Before Congress he served on the San Diego City Council, becoming its first Council President, and later chaired the San Diego Unified Port District, which he says supports "over 40,000 high-skill, high-wage jobs" (his House website). He sits on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the House Budget Committee. His campaign describes him as a "civic leader" devoted to "creating jobs, protecting the environment, and improving the quality of life in San Diego" (campaign site). In August 2026 he voted against an amendment to cut U.S. funding tied to Israel's war in Gaza; Rep. Sara Jacobs was the only San Diego Democrat to vote the other way, and the amendment failed (Voice of San Diego). He co-chairs the Bipartisan Fiscal Forum and says he is "ranked the 4th most independent Democrat in Congress" (his House website). He promises continued work on job creation in biomedical research and small business, health care access, and protecting Social Security and Medicare. His site also lists veterans' services, climate change, education and workforce development, and immigration reform among his priorities (campaign site). **Strengths:** Thirteen years in Congress, seats on the Energy and Commerce and Budget committees, and earlier service as San Diego's first Council President. **Trade-offs:** A long incumbency, and a contested vote to keep Gaza war funding in place that split San Diego's Democrats in Congress. **Keep in mind:** Weigh over a decade in the House and City Hall experience against a Gaza funding vote that put him on the opposite side from one San Diego Democratic colleague. ## Steve Cohen Steve Cohen, 79, spent 50 years managing television newsrooms in markets including New York, Detroit, Philadelphia and Los Angeles, taking his first news director job in Peoria, Illinois, in 1973 (Times of San Diego). He spent his final 20 years as news director of KUSI-TV in San Diego, leaving after Nexstar Media Group acquired the station in October 2023, and has since worked as a television consultant (Times of San Diego). He has not served in the California Legislature or U.S. Congress. He says Republicans "were looking for candidates to run for Congress against Scott Peters, and they wanted someone who they considered substantial"; he calls himself a political outsider who has "spent my entire career covering politicians" (Times of San Diego). He says he wants to be "a disruptor" in what he calls a broken Congress. He promises to protect Social Security and seniors' rights and push for what he calls a functional health care system. He also lists fiscal accountability and a balanced federal budget, border security, and affordability for working San Diego families among his priorities (Times of San Diego). **Strengths:** A 50-year television news career, including 20 years as a San Diego news director, gives him deep familiarity with local politics. **Trade-offs:** No record in any office; what voters can judge is a career covering politics rather than a record of holding office. **Keep in mind:** He entered the race after Republicans recruited him. Weigh decades of watching San Diego politics up close against having never held office. ## Record in office Steve Cohen has not served in the California Legislature or U.S. Congress; these records cover only those offices. Scott Peters (Democratic) has served in the U.S. House since 2013 and has sponsored 38 bills in the 119th Congress; 2 of their career bills have become law. Per Congress.gov and the public-domain congress-legislators roster, retrieved 2026-09-21. ## Record details Peters — Committees: Energy and Commerce; Budget Peters — HR 3005 (2020): To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 13308 Midland Road in Poway, California, as the "Ray Chavez Post Office Building". Peters — HR 1378 (2014): To designate the United States Federal Judicial Center located at 333 West Broadway in San Diego, California, as the "John Rhoades Federal Judicial Center" and to designate the United States courthouse located at 333 West Broadway in San Diego, California, as the "James M. Carter and Judith N. Keep United States Courthouse". Committee assignments and the most recently signed-into-law bills each record-holder lead-authored, from the official legislative record. ## Financial info - **Scott Peters** — $1,810,961 raised (Individuals: $335,980; PACs & committees: $1,066,750; Self-funding: $1,641) Steve Cohen has no fundraising on file with the FEC. Total raised is all receipts for the 2026 cycle; the breakdown lists direct contributions, so the pieces can sum below the total. Figures are FEC filings through June 30, 2026, per the FEC bulk campaign-finance summaries, retrieved 2026-09-21. ## Review notes - Scott Peters for Congress may have more bias because it is an advocacy voter guide compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources. ## Sources 1. [CA Secretary of State — Statement of Vote, June 2, 2026 primary (certified 2026-07-10)](https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/prior-elections/statewide-election-results/primary-election-june-2-2026/statement-vote) 2. [Ballotpedia — June 2026 California primary](https://ballotpedia.org) 3. [Scott Peters for Congress — campaign site (biography, priorities)](https://www.scottpeters.com/) 4. [Rep. Scott Peters — official full House biography](https://scottpeters.house.gov/about/full-biography) 5. [Voice of San Diego — reporting on the San Diego House delegation's vote on Israel/Gaza war funding](https://voiceofsandiego.org/2026/08/04/one-san-diego-congressional-rep-voted-against-funding-israeli-war/) 6. [Times of San Diego — Steve Cohen's TV news career and congressional campaign announcement](https://timesofsandiego.com/politics/2026/05/17/marketink-after-50-years-of-covering-politicians-ex-kusi-news-director-steve-cohen-is-running-for-congress/) 7. [congress-legislators — current members of Congress (unitedstates project)](https://unitedstates.github.io/congress-legislators/legislators-current.json) 8. [Congress.gov — member sponsored legislation (Library of Congress)](https://api.congress.gov/) 9. [FEC — 2026 House & Senate current-campaign financial summaries (bulk data)](https://www.fec.gov/files/bulk-downloads/2026/webl26.zip) ## The rest of the ballot United States Representative, District 50 is one contest among the many a California voter decides on November 3, 2026 — Congress, the Legislature, county, city, and school board races differ by address. Vote or Else builds the full list for any California address and breaks down each contest the way this page does, with no account and without storing the address: https://voteorelse.com/ ## How to cite this page Vote or Else, "United States Representative, District 50 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/us-rep-50 (sources last retrieved September 24, 2026). Link the canonical page above rather than this Markdown file. Coverage is updated as the race develops, so quote it with its retrieval date.